Wednesday, January 14, 2015

2015 Driver Spotlight Preview: Martin Truex Jr

Martin Truex Jr 2015 Preview


By Richard Tix

Let's just say 2014 was a rough year for Martin Truex Jr. Its been said a million times but his NASCAR career will now be defined and the turning point will be remembered as "spin gate." The race before the Chase at Richmond in 2013 has changed his career path.

If you ask Martin he will probably say something about it being a path that he is happy with, but he has to think every now and then about still being with a main team like Michael Waltrip Racing. 

Instead, Martin moved into the car that Kurt Busch helped compete with in 2013. It looked great for Martin because Furniture Row looked like they were on the right path, but it also put huge pressure on him after Kurt made it look easy.

2014 proved that it was not easy for Kurt to succeed in the #78. Martin stepped into his new team and struggled to start off the year. He finished the season with 1 top 5 and 5 top 10's, which was his worst season since 2009. There was a silver lining to end the year, as it seemed that he and the team finally found something. Just in the Chase he had 6 top 15's with two of those being top 10's. He also started in the top 15 four times during the Chase. 


Bold Predictions/2015 Season Expectations:
  • It's and unfortunate thing but I don't think 2015 will be the season Martin turns it back around. I don't expect a dramatic decline, but I see a season close to that of 2014. I think he will be at about 1-2 top 5's, and 5-6 top 10's. I do think a drop in his average finish of 20.2 could happen in 2015, though. It's not all on Martin, but I just think some young guys in the sport will start stealing some top 10's which means someone has to lose them, right?


No comments: